Antihistamines- Which ones have worked for your dog(s)? - Page 1

My son and his wife have a Border Collie with allergies. They are feeding him a raw well-balanced diet (organ meat, muscle meat and bone) along with Salmon oil, digestive enzymes and probiotic. They started each supplement one at a time. He is a rescue and he has really improved greatly over all, as he was in poor shape when they got him, but he still itches quite a bit. His coat looks gorgeous and he doesn't have any lesions or hot spots on his skin, but  he has some pink areas on his chest, legs and belly where he scratches or chews a lot. With my allergic girl I tried Atarax and Benadryl- neither one worked. Temaril-P worked for my her, but my son and his wife want to avoid using that if at all possible and I think that is wise- it should be their last resort. SO...what antihistamine have you used that was effective for itching caused by allergies? They have tried Benadryl with no luck.

My girl, after a year and a half of a raw diet, digestive enzymes, probiotis and herbs, has been on NO meds for at least 6 months now, so I know there is hope, but in the meantime my son's Border Collie is miserable at times and they want to give him relief.

Thanks,
Char

Have they tried plain old organic natural yogurt? I make it a gallon at a time, and it even keeps yeast issues under control--WAY better than probiotics in pill/powder form.

Even our raw fed dogs may need more of the necessary enzymes. I need to feed more tripe, myself. Wonder if that would help the BC too? 

Vom Marischal, Thank you. They do give their dog tripe, but not in large amounts. How much do you feed? I will definitely suggest the yogurt, although what is interesting is I used to give our dogs yogurt or Kefir and our holistic vet said if you have a dog with skin issues the yogurt won't be enough. Sometmes it is just so hard to know what is best, but in the meantime, our dogs get the yogurt twice a week and the probiotic in pill form daily (mutiple strains and high potency). Whatever they don't need they get rid of anyway.  Thanks again.

Star, I am not certain it's possible to feed too much tripe. I read somewhere that dogs can survive well on just tripe. Obviously I wouldn't do that...but I have no problem feeding an entire tripe meal a couple times a week, but that is direct from a slaughterhouse, no washing or bleaching. Some people toss out the whole paunch and let the dog free feed on it. 

Thanks so much! The tripe I feed is frozen, but I'm going to look around for fresh.  Definitely going to increase it and suggest to my son to do the same. Certainly can't hurt :)  

Just so you know, you will probably have to go to private parties or a slaughterhouse. There's some law here in CA about transporting unwashed tripe that is unfit for human consumption...they have to put dye on it, or charcoal dust. Of the two I think charcoal is least obnoxious. I THINK frozen chopped tripe came to be called "green" because it has yellow dye! You could probably contact somebody on craigslist who advertises that he/she will slaughter animals, but many ethnicities eat the damn stuff so it won't be as plentiful as you think. Anyway, it's pretty much useless if it's been washed...the whole point is the enzymes that are in the stomach lining--NOT the vegetable remains, as some people believe; they won't hurt anything but they aren't the point, either.

Another possibility is a Muslim slaughterhouse; Muslims don't eat innards. There's one somewhat near me but I haven't actually gone to it; they would give me whatever I fished out of the bin for free, but so far that seems like a hassle.

 Benadryl... 100mg twice a day for a  large dog like mine

Chlorpheniramine

Hydroxyzine  

Omega fatty acids helped a lot too.

Hi Char,hope all is well with you.As you know I have had  many itchy skin problems with one of my boys and what I am just finding is that if you get lucky and find 1 protein that works then stick to it and only it untill you notice that the itch has subsided.I kept mine on beef from the prepared diets available with NOTHING else in it only the meat,bone and organs and yes some tripe .After a month it seems to now be much better.I will worry about adding anything else 1 thing at a time over the course of about 2 weeks.If I read it properly it seems that there is already to much in the diet to soon.With an allergic dog you can not add yogurt and all the other things cause it could very well be one of those things (enzymes,probiotics, salmon oil ,etc)that cause the itching.You may want to start at the beginning again with a protein source that you know FOR SURE he is ok with and just give that along with the bone,organs etc from the SAME  animal.This is just a suggestion Im making cause I cant stand to hear of these dam allergies.They make these poor dogs so miserable.Anyway good luck to you with your boys dog.

Hi Domenic. All is well here :). Hope you are doing well also. Thank for the very good advice. They haven't tried giving one protein source yet, but that is probably something they may need to try soon. Either that or uncommon protein sources. They were hoping that just the raw diet (balanced with meat, bone and organs, some tripe) would help, as it does with so many dogs. They started the supplements as you recommended- they did it very slowly, adding one supplement at a time, and observed carefully for a couple weeks before adding another one. None of the supplements so far have been a  trigger. That said, it doesn't hurt to start over.

As I mentioned before, I know there is hope. My dog is SOOOO much better and at this point is no more itchy than the average dog, scratching a couple times a day. She thankfully is able to eat all protein sources, including eggs and yogurt now. The hard thing about these allergies is that you never know what may or may not work for YOUR dog- they all seem to be different.  Every dog is a new experiment! The vets most times are at a loss too. I know you know alll of this :) Anyway, I hope your boy is doing well and not too itchy these days. i am happy to hear that you found that one specific protein source has helped.  Thank you again for the advice. 
Take care,
Char